Searching for Scholarships Lunch & Learn

Parents of seniors, are you worrying about paying for your son/ daughter's college education? If you answered yes, you're definitely not alone! The Kilbourne Counselors will be hosting the November Lunch & Learn at noon this Friday (November 14th) to talk about searching for scholarships.

We know that the scholarship search process can feel daunting and that some students and families don't even know where to start so our hope is that this short, focused 30 minutes of time together will allow you to get a jump-start on the scholarship search process.

As always, the Lunch & Learn series will be held from 12-12:30 over zoom for interested families to be able to grab their lunch and eat while we talk about that month's topic. The zoom link will be emailed home to parents and posted on the Counselor website on Friday morning.

We look forward to seeing parents online on Friday!

Socratic Society

On Friday morning 26 students were inducted into the Socratic Society. Staff members are given the opportunity to recognize students for excellence in one or more of the core socratic values of Scholarship, Integrity, Personal Effort, Compassion, or Lifelong Learning. Students are only eligible to be selected for this honor one time during their high school career.

Congratulations to all of the following students who were honored: Micah Anderson, Milo Buerk, Sophia Bollentino, Palmer Cavicchia, Drew Deken, Michael Dolciato, Lilliane Drummond, Sydney Emberton, Morgan Hosty, Ximena R Hernandez Vazquez, Benjamin Keyes, Sarah Lundine, Ellie Maetzold, Pierce Malinowski, Lia McGlone, Molly O'Leary, Luke Page, Tate Rich, Charlotte Routh, Dylann Schultheis, Ella Schumacher, Lily Schwartz, Sidney Spampinato, Max Williams, Mia Williams, and Max Ziskin. We are proud of all of you!

**Just a reminder, this post is also being shared on the NEW WKHS Counselor blog. This blog site will no longer be active beyond 2025 so you can transition to receive all blog posts emailed directly to you by subscribing to the new blog site.**

More about PSAT Scores

I posted last night that PSAT scores were released yesterday... and they were, but only for some students. 

Today as I talked to a few other students and then had the chance to log into CollegeBoard to look at the score information I found out that the scores were delayed for a large number of juniors. This is due to the irregularity that happened with the construction noises in our testing location. Based on what I can read online it looks like the scores will most likely come out next Thursday or the following Thursday. So if you logged into your CollegeBoard account and realized that your scores were not there yet, please try again next week. 

Sorry for the confusion!

PSAT Scores

CollegeBoard has released your PSAT scores today.  Your scores are available electronically.  This means that you will log into your CollegeBoard account to view and download your scores.  (Which is what you will do in the future when you take your SAT as well.)  CollegeBoard has a BigFuture mobile app that you can use for accessing your scores or you can use their website.

If you submitted your email account when completing your answer sheet then you should have received an e-mail from CollegeBoard notifying you that your scores are accessible. Even if you didn't receive an e-mail from CollegeBoard you can still access your scores.

One of the best parts about the PSAT is that CollegeBoard has partnered with Khan Academy to use your scores to make a personalized practice plan.  This is a fantastic option and I strongly encourage you to use it.  If you have questions about this FREE option you can visit the Khan Academy website at: https://www.khanacademy.org/sat

Once you have your scores, you may be wondering what they mean.  The score sheets from PSAT provides a wealth of information so it can take some time to digest it all, but if interested, please know that the testing section of the counselor website can help give you additional information, tips and links to better understand your scores.   http://www.wkhscounselors.com/

Don't forget, this is just a practice test so it is giving you an indication of where you might expect to score on your college admissions tests and you can use your results to help guide you in preparing to achieve college readiness.

Big Changes Coming

I have been writing this blog for a LONG time... as in longer than my current students have been alive! And in these years I have published nearly 4,000 posts. Which is a little bit crazy and definitely a labor of love. But in the last year I have had feedback from quite a few people that they wish I was writing the blog posts for the entire WKHS Counseling Department. And, so, changes are coming...

As of this week I am now posting my blog messages to a new site. The new blog address is wkhscounselors.wordpress.com. I think it will be an easier blog address for students and families to find. And it will have the same easy option to be able to get the posts sent directly to you by clicking the "Subscribe" button.

What does that mean for this blog? It means that it is going to go away. For the rest of 2025, I will post all of my posts to both blog sites. I am going to try to add a reminder to the bottom of this blog's posts to remind people that you will need to switch to the other blog to continue receiving messages in 2026 and beyond... but you can make the change now.

I genuinely appreciate all of you who follow this blog and I am thankful to know that even after all of this time people are still finding it helpful... so I hope you will make the transition with me and follow my posts over on the new blog site.

(FYI - I will not be posting the copy of this message to the new site as I don't want it to be confusing to anyone.)

Pre-ACT Reminders

If you are taking the Pre-ACT tomorrow, you will report directly to the gymnasium when you arrive to school in the morning. You will need to have your student ID with you in order to check in. You will also need a number 2 pencil (no mechanical pencils allowed), a calculator, and I would recommend a watch. 

The test will begin promptly by 8:40 and you will most likely finish testing during 5th period.  (If you have lunch during 3rd or 4th period we will be sure you have time to eat and give you pass to go to 5th period.)

I was very happy to see so many of my students signed up to be taking the practice test for the ACT and I wish you all good luck!  I hope it will be a meaningful practice opportunity for you in preparation for future college admissions tests. Get some sleep tonight and good luck on the Pre-ACT tomorrow!

STARS

First, I hope you all enjoy your day off tomorrow!

Second, for the seniors, it is a good chance to double check to make sure that there are no clean up steps you still need to take for the colleges with the applications you have submitted...

1. Do you need to make an account in their college portal?

2. Do they require a STARS report? There are about 40 colleges that use the STARS (Self-Reported Transcript and Academic Record System) which is a lot like the Common App Courses and Grades system. For the STARS report, you will create an account and report all of your courses and grades with your credits. The big key is to be sure that you are matching your transcript exactly. So pull it up off of Infinite Campus (in the Documents section) and fill it out carefully.

3. Check when their financial aid deadline is and be sure to start working on your FAFSA so that you get it completed before the first college's priority deadline to give yourself the best chance of qualifying for financial aid money.